The story behind Rabens Saloner

Posted on March 23 2017

Rabens Saloner creative director, Birgitte Rabens Olrik, is adventurous, creative and a traveller at heart. Most of the collections she creates on her many journeys to exotic and hidden places in the East, as she strives to find small artisans to help bring her collections to life.

“I started travelling in Asia, met a lot of artisans and started buying different things. I sold them from the back of my car – I knew a lot of buyers as I’ve been involved in the fashion industry for years, and then it just slowly evolved to where it is today,”

“I like women that dress for themselves and create their own identity. Personality is important, but you have to dress accordingly. I design for women like that – women with a strong sense of personality. And I want you to feel good in my clothes.”

With a detailed approach fabrics are often handmade and hand-dyed by small artisans in Asia. It’s an ever-developing journey for Birgitte to find and work with new, exciting people that help create her universe.“They are so good at the craftsmanship. Their sense of colour is amazing and absolutely unique. When I work with colours, I’ll work with a range of nuances, but the artisans create the most wonderful combinations and tones".

Asia has been a fascination and love of hers for years and is likely to continue to be so.“I like the process of East meeting West in Rabens Saloner. It’s important for me to incorporate that in everything. Everything in the West is much more neat, the lines are cleaner. I want to create something new from that, by combining it with the otherworldly and utterly fascinating universe of something very different – my love for Asia.”